Everybody knows you don't leave the table when you're on a heater.
We've known it all year that this is David Ortiz final season. But should it be? A few teams have given him his shitty going away gift, and I've bought the final season shirt, bumper sticker AND bottle opener but I'm totally fine with him playing in 2017. Honestly, I don't wanna get heavy on Big Papi, but it's kinda irresponsible of him to just give up now. The Red Sox are FINALLY good again for the first time since 2013, and if they wanna stay good for more than just one season, unlike how they followed up 2013, then they could definitely use his bat hitting 4th again next season. In a little over half the season (87 games) Big Papi has 24 homers, 34 doubles (which is crazy to me given his lack of speed and foot issues) but the dude is still mashing at 40 years old. Add in a .330 batting average, 79 RBIs, on base % of .423, throw in 2 for 2 on stolen bases and oh by the way he's leading all of MLB in slugging and OPS which sabermetrics guys will tell you is pretty, pretty, pretty good. Last night in a 13-2 romping of Papi's former team, the Minnesota Twins, David went 3-5 with a HR and 4 RBI. Decent night for the 40 year old.
But it's what he did BEFORE the game that took all the headlines.
Papi hit a homah soooooo faaawkin hawwwd broo dat it got fackinnn stuck in Pesky's Pole. Absolutely insane to me, I mean I get Fenway Park is fragile at 104 years old and low key falling apart but it's bananas to me this happened. The odds of this happening has to be close to the odds of winning the lottery as you get struck by lightning. In the many years I've been following the Sox, I've never seen anything like that.
Papi is a bad mother fucker indeed. Just add another feat to the legend of Big Papi. Rob Bradford said it and it's true, with no proof of Ted William's 502 red seat HR it's pretty cool to have documented evidence of this. I just wish there was video footage, I wouldn't put it past the Boston PR-ed Sox to jam a ball up there just to make headlines.
However when it comes to David retiring, I do believe he will not play next year, the foot issues are real. But I mean it seems pretty obvious he can still swing the bat, plus he's a DH that does have to account for something. I'm not the only one who thinks the foot stop shouldn't stop him. Look at what the Hit King himself had to say. Great line.
But honestly, I think because he's having SUCH a good year it makes sense to walk away. Because although he's been mashing this year, who knows how much will change from age 40 to 41?
Remember when A-Rod had his renaissance last season? (you probably don't because fuck A-rod) While he only hit .250 but had 33 HR and 86 RBI at 39 years old, this year he's hitting .210 with 9 HR and 29, and he just got kinda hot this week, his numbers were way worse like two weeks ago. Basically I'm just saying you don't know what you're gonna get with Papi next year. He'd look like a real ass hole if he came back and hit like .240 with 17 HRs next year. The Red Sox are good. I shit on them a lot on twitter, but I fucking love the Sox man. And this team can hit, they just are extremely shaky when it comes to pitching, so unless they can win games in the playoffs 9-8 I don't see them winning the World Series. Obviously that would be the best ending for Papi's career, to go out with a championship, but should the Sox lose before then, the individual season he's having, a potential MVP year, is the next best way to walk away. I will end with this. This current Red Sox team is a fun, young team that hits the piss off the ball. They have a bright future and just have to make sure they don't fuck it up by not keeping their young talent and adding to their pitching. Gun to my head this team does not win it all. I just don't think this team is built to win in October. They MIGHT be able to get out of the ALDS but I'd be shocked if they won the Pennant or more. Although I said the same thing in 2013 so who knows? Should the Red Sox lose in heartbreaking fashion in a 6 or 7 game series in the ALCS or World Series, I would be VERY interested to see what David does. To play as well as he has and be that close to another ring, I think then we can really discuss the possibility of a certain call season (again) in 2017.
1 Comment
Matt
7/25/2016 03:56:42 pm
"Papi hit a homah soooooo faaawkin hawwwd broo dat it got fackinnn stuck in Pesky's Pole." HAHAHAHA best sentence I've ever read Leave a Reply. |
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